Robin’s Journal @ AthleticsDirect.com

December 13, 1999

Hey everybody,

Two down, none to go. I had my second surgery of the off-season on Monday and I'm feeling pretty good.

I hadn't really been planning on having surgery at all. The decision to have it was made on Sunday, and it took place the next day. But, it's definitely better to have taken care of it now. I irritated my shoulder during the playoffs, and I thought that if I just gave it some time, the swelling would go down. But it didn't, and surgery seemed like the best route to take. It turned out there was a spur that had been in there a while and it was getting irritated by all the scar tissue. But I didn't tear anything, so I'm happy about that.

The rehab should take about three months and I'll be ready to go by the start of spring training. And my knee feels fine, so I'm good to go there.

The way I look at it, I'm just going in for tune-ups; getting everything in working order before the start of the season. To be quite honest though, it does make me realize how old I am. You don't realize how much of a toll being an athlete takes on your body until you start going through things like this. I was fairly surgery-free until '97 and since then, I've had five or six surgeries! So I definitely have started feeling a little old!

But, that's part of the job and it comes with the territory. You just know that you're going to have aches and pains and things that are going to have to be fixed along the road. So, you get yourself fixed up and move on!

Talk to you soon,

Robin